Liquid atomizer



y 1970 K. L. WINQUIST ETAL 3,510,112

LIQUID ATOMIZER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 7, 1966 INVENTORS Kmx'lr Ludvig k/fnquisl: Stare finders Ede/ may .0 '1 A r I mmfwu a/e 445,402-

ATTORNEYS May 5, 1970 Filed March 7, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS Knu Luck/[g h/inquis Siam: finders Backman ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,510,112 LIQUID ATOMIZER Knut L. Winquist, Hogiundagatan 22, and Sture Anders Backmann, Sturegatan 12, both of Orebro, Sweden 'Continnation-in-part of application Ser. No. 469,814, July 6, 1965. This application Mar. 7, 1966, Ser. No. 536,550

Int. Cl. F02m 45/08 U.S. Cl. 261-37 11 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A liquid atomizing device including an outlet orifice and a valve member which is axially reciprocable relative thereto in order to perform a hammering effect upon liquid emerging from said orifice. The orifice is supplied with liquid under a pulsating pressure and the valve member is adjustable during operation so as to vary the extent of the orifice opening relative to the amplitude of liquid pressure at said orifice.

This application is a continuation-in-part of our copending application Ser. No. 469,814, filed on July 6, 1965, now abandoned.

The present invention relates to a liquid atomizing device for use with any apparatus which utilizes a liquid in atomized form. The present invention is particularly useable, for example, for atomizing liquid fuel supplied to internal combustion engines; liquid fuel supplied to oil burners in steam generators or heating systems, etc.; and liquid fuel supplied to gas turbine combustion chambers. Generally, however, the present invention is applicable to the atomization of any liquid and not necessarily a fuel.

'In order to atomize a liquid, according to the present invention, said liquid is supplied under pressure to an outlet opening and is there subjected to a hammering type action which literally breaks up the liquid stream into discrete portions. Such breaking up of a liquid into discrete portions is commonly referred to as atomization of the liquid.

Liquid atomization has particular utility with regard to liquid fuels which are supplied to a combustion means since the combustion efficiency is directly related to the atomization efiiciency. This applies, for example, to such things as fuel oil burners in steam generators (of the type which supply steam to steam turbines), fuel oil burners in home heating systems, the combustion chamber in gas turbines, and to fuel combustion in internal combustion engines.

A current field of major interest in this regard is the automobile engine which, because of imperfect combustion which results from improper fuel atomization, is continually contaminating the air in congested cities throughout the world with dirty and poisonous exhaust fumes. These fumes are poisonous since they contain a relatively high percentage of carbon monoxide which is indicative of poor combustion efiiciency. On the other hand, an automobile engine which utilizes a fuel atomizer according to this invention will discharge a considerably lower percentage of carbon monoxide in its exhaust gases.

The well known carburetor provides a very poor atomizing efiiciency since the atomizing capacity of a carburetor varies in accordance with the fuel consumption and the atomization becomes very ineflicient at idle, at low number of revolutions, and during changes in the speed of the engine. It is common, therefore, to supplement the fundamentally imperfect carburetor with supplemental means such as choke, idle nozzle, accelerating pump and preheater (hot spot), which however render it complicated and scarcely improved in regard to the composition of the exhaust gases.

Previously known injection devices for engine fuel are, although they may constitute improvements over the carburetor, on the one hand complicated and on the other ineffective in respect to their atomization ability. Further, if the fuel injection occurs into the inlet manifold, they have to be placed near the inlet port of the cylinder which means that one injection device has to be arranged at each cylinder or possibly at each pair of cylinders. Furthermore, the fuel then has to be injected intermittenly according to the work cycle of the cylinder or the pair of cylinders in question, which requires complicated control means. All this means, as in the case of direct injection into the cylinders, a complicated and expensive device.

Known injection devices also require substantial fuel pressure and, with small nozzle openings, provide a great risk of clogging. In addition, the needle valves frequently used in these devices provide an unsatisfactory injection of fuel with nonuniform atomization of the fuel.

Generally, the objects of the present invention are to provide an improved means for atomizing liquids whereby thorough and uniform atomization is obtained, and whereby said means requires a minimum number of separate moving parts, and whereby adjustment is easily obtainable.

A specific object of the present invention is to provide an improved means for atomizing liquid fuels, particularly fuels which are atomized for purposes of com-bustion in engine or turbine combustion chambers, fuel oil burners, etc.

A further specific object of this invention is to provide a fuel injection device, which incorporates the liquid fuel atomizing means of this invention, for use in internal combustion engines.

A further object of this invention is to provide a fuel injection device as aforementioned and in which fuel atomization is obtained at a constant high efficiency regardless of engine speed and regardless of fluctuations in said speed.

Other objects will become apparent from the following detailed description which is referred to the attached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 in a longitudinal section shows a first embodiment of a fuel injection device according to the invention,

FIG. 2 in an enlarged scale shows the valve body of said device, and

FIG. 3 in a longitudinal section shows another embodiment of a fuel injection device according to the invention.

While the attached drawings and the following detailed description are specific to a particular embodiment of realization of the invention, it is to be understood that this is by way of illustration only and that the principles of the present invention are also realizable in the form of other liquid fuel atomizing devices and in the formof atomizers for liquids generally, not necessarily fuels, as has been aforementioned.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 the fuel injection device comprises a valve housing '1 in one end of which there is a hole 2 forming a valve opening. A valve body 3 in the form of a cone is held against the outer edge of said hole by means of a coil spring 4. The spring is at its other end secured to a bar 5 which via a two-armed lever 6 is displaced by a control bar 7 connected with the engine throttle control, through which the spring tension is altered. A sealing means 8 is mounted around the bar 5.

A fuel feed pipe 9 from a fuel pump opens into the valve housing. The valve housing is with the injection nozzle 17 screwed into an inlet pipe 10, which conducts to a combustion engine .(not shown) from an air cleaner from which the air is controlled by a throttle 11 linked with the control bar 7 in a way not shown. The inlet pipe is also provided with a guard screen 12 to protect the engine from loose solid particles or from the valve body 3 if it were to become detached from spring 4.

As shown in FIG. 2, the surface 14 of the valve body 3, which surface cooperates with the seat-forming edge 13 of the hole 2, is in this case conically formed and terminates in a relatively sharp edge 15 which forms a release edge for the fuel. The non-active surface 16 faced away from the valve seat 13 is in this case conically excavated, but can of course be formed in any other way so long as the surface 14 provides a good release edge.

The valve body 3 is adapted to slightly reciprocate longitudinally toward and away from the valve seat 13. This movement is in this case produced by pulsations of the fuel pressure which is supplied for instance by means of a known diaphragm pump 28. A suitable frequency has proved to be about 70 Hz. and the maximum pressure 1-1.5 mn./m. (meganewton per square metre).

The device works in the following manner. Fuel, for instantaneous gasoline, is fed into the valve housing 1 through the pipe 9. The valve body 3 is pressed outwards so that an annular opening determined by the spring load is formed between the valve seat 13 and the surface 14, by which a continuous fuel flow corresponding to the width of the annular opening is allowed to pass a ong the surface '14. Because of the decrease in pressure, the fuel is partly evaporated in pipe 10. The rest of the fuel is atomized by the atomization force which is a maximum since the valve body reciprocates slightly in the direction of flow to and from the vlave seat. This causes a double action: (1) the fuel flow is broken up, and (2) the valve body is centered in the nozzle opening since it repeatedly is centered by the valve seat. The latter action means that the annular opening of the valve always has the same width all around, which results on the one hand in that the pressure drop across the nozzle which is proportional to the spring load, is uniformly the highest possible for achieving proper atomization, and on the other hand in that the fuel flow permanently is proportional to the load which the spring exerts upon the valve body (which means a fixed fuel flow at a fixed position of the bar 5 connected with the throttle control).

The embodiment shown in FIG. 3 has proved particularly suitable for injection into the inlet pipe of the engine. The fuel injection device is in this case adapted for injection otuside the throttle 11. The inlet ports of the engine cylinders accordingly are connected to the lower end of the pipe the other end of which is connected to an air cleaner. A fuel nozzle 17' is introduced through the pipe wall and has the hole 2 directed along the inlet pipe in the inlet direction.

The valve body 3' is in this case ball-shaped and is carried by a support 20 against which the coil spring 4' bears. The movable means by which the spring load is controlled consists in this case of a lever *18 which holds the spring against the support 20. The spring is mounted around a bar 19 extending from the support through a hole 21 in the free end of the lever. The clearance of the hole 21 allows deviations from the right angle betwen the bar 19 4 and the lever 18. A pair of stop nuts 22 limits the angle of deflection downwards of the lever 18.

The lever 18 is mounted on an axle 23 from which a lever 24 extends in the opposite direction. The lever 24 is by means of a link 25 connected with the throttle lever 26 which is connected with the throttle control by means of a link 27.

As in the previous embodiment, a pulsating fuel fiow is fed through the pipe 9' and the device works in the same manner as said previous embodiment. The ballshaped valve body has proved to give a good atomization and a good spreading of the fuel in the inlet pipe. The atomization is considerably improved relative to conventional carburetors. Also an improved evaporation is effected to a considerable degree by the annular slot which is variable according to the throttle opening and which has the same width all around. By directing the mouth of the nozzle in the inlet direction of the inlet pipe one avoids the risk that the fuel adheres on the opposite wall of pipe 10.

The injection device according to the invention can be used with all kinds of fuels that are in a liquid phase up to the valve, such as gasoline or liquified petroleum gas. Comparative tests between a gasoline fed engine with a conventional carburetor and the same engine with the device according to this invention have proved that the latter produces higher effective output and higher coefiicient of utilization and exhaust gases with a substantially fixed proportion of carbon monoxide below one percent per volume at all outputs. Specially at idle conventionally fed engines have high proportions of carbon monoxide, nearly ten percent. Two stroke engines produce still higher concentrations of carbon monoxide.

A possible alternative to the valve members 3 and 3 which reciprocate linearly in the same direction as the flow of liquid from the respective discharge orifices, would be a valve member which moves perpendicularly across the orifice opening; that is, a valve member which would function in the manner of a gate valve.

Such a valve member would act much in the manner of a knife in that it would chop or slice the liquid stream into fine, discrete portions.

As an alternative to a rigid, mechanical valve member, such as 3 and 3', the hammer or slicing means could constitute a jet of pressurized gas, such as air, which would be intermittently directed against or across the liquid stream emerging from the orifice.

In the embodiments illustrated in FIGS. l-3, the reciprocating movement of the members 3 and 3' is occasioned through a fluctuation in the liquid fuel pressure. Alternatively, the intermittent actions of the hammer member, 3 or 3' or any corresponding means such as the slicing members or the pressurized gas jet, can be actuated by other means. For example, an electromagnetic vibrator could be used to vibrate the valve members 3 or 3' according to any desired frequency. In fact, the vibration frequency could be correlated with either of various aspects of the engine operation, such as speed, power output, fuel pressure.

A further alternative means to control the intermittent hammering or slicing action of the hammering means, would be a mechanical cam means which would drive a valve member, such as 3 or 3'. Said cam means could, in turn, be driven by the engine in correlation with various aspects of the engines operation.

In view of the alternative constructions described above, it is possible to control the hammer means, such as valve members 3 and 3, so that during the reciprocating movements thereof toward the orifice 2 or 2, said orifice is not necessarily completely closed. That is, the member 3 could be cam actuated to reciprocate away and towards orifice 2 but without its contacting the edge of said orifice during the movement towards the orifice. In fact, the cam could be regulated so as to vary the degree of maximum closing and opening of said orifice by said valve member.

It is to be understood that the above relates to only preferred embodiments of the device according to the invention and that obvious modifications and adaptions are intended to fall within the scope of the appended claims.

We claim: I

1. A fuel injection device for internal combustion engines, comprising: an inlet conduit for conducting a combustible air and fuel mixture to a combustion chamber of an engine, a fuel injection nozzle comprising a hollow housing having an open end opening into said inlet conduit and providing a passage for fuel flow into said cond-uit, said open end comprising a rigid, stationary valve seat and a valve body which is linearly reciprocable away from and towards said seat colinearly with the direction of said fuel flow, and including a valve closing means which normally urges said valve body against said valve seat in a direction opposite to the direction of said fuel flow, a fuel pump for supplying fuel under pulsating pressure to said nozzle, said valve closing means being responsive to fluctuations in the pressure of fuel in said nozzle whereby said valve body alternately reciprocates away from and against said valve seat in response to said pressure fluctuations, said valve body thereby functioning as a mechanical hammer against said seat to atomize the liquid fuel stream passing outwardly of said nozzle open end, wherein said valve closing means comprises resilient means which resiliently urges said valve body towards said valve seat, including a variable control means to vary the force with which said resilient means urges said valve body towards said valve seat, said control means being externally selectively actuable during the operation of said device.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein said valve body is mounted at one end of an axially reciprocable rod and said resilient means comprises a coil spring mounted around said rod with one end of said spring bearing against one side of said valve body, said control means comprising an arm pivoted at one end about an axis which is perpendicular to the axis of said rod, said ar-m having a free end which bears against the other end of said spring whereby said spring is compressible between said valve body and said arm, said control means further comprising a means to pivot said arm so as to vary the compression of said spring.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the open end of said injection nozzle opens in a direction which is colinear with the direction of air flow in said inlet condut, an open ing in the free end of said arm, said rod extending freely through said opening and said opening being larger than the outer circumference of said rod whereby said arm is pivotable without affecting said rod.

4. The device of claim 2, where in said valve body comprises a ball-shaped valve member which seats against said valve seat.

5. A device for atomizing liquids, comprising: a conduit means, a pressurizing means for feeding liquid under a pulsating pressure to said conduit means, said conduit means including an orifice for said liquid to pass therethrough to outwardly of said conduit means, said orifice being defined by a rigid, stationary valve seat, a valve member movable along the axis of said orifice and located externally thereof, means to reciprocate said valve member along said axis between an open position relative to said seat and a closed position against said seat respectively in correspondence to the ascending and descending amplitude of said pulsating pressure, whereby said valve member functions as mechanical hammer against said seat to atomize a liquid stream passing outwardly of said orifice, and including variable control means to determine the amount to which said valve member opens relative to respective amplitudes of said liquid pressure, said control means being externally selectively actuable during the operation of said device.

6. The atomizing device of claim 5, including a resil ient means urging said valve member to a closed position relative to said seat, said control means being adapted to actuate the force in said resilient means.

7. A fuel injection device for internal combustion engines, comprising: an inlet conduit for conducting a combustible air and fuel mixture to a combustion chamber of an engine, a fuel injection nozzle comprising a hollow housing having an open end opening into said inlet conduit and providing a passage for fuel flow into said conduit, said open end comprising a rigid, stationary valve seat and a valve body which is linearly reciprocable away from and towards said seat colinearly with the direction of said fuel flow, and including a valve closing means which normally urges said valve body against said valve seat in a direction opposite to the direction of said fuel flow, a fuel pump for supplying fuel under pulsating pressure to said nozzle, said valve closing means being responsive to fluctuations in the pressure of fuel in said nozzle whereby said valve body alternately reciprocates away from and against said valve seat in response to said pressure fluctuations, said valve body thereby functioning as a mechanical hammer against said seat to atomize the liquid fuel stream passing outwardly of said nozzle open end, including a throttle control means, said control means being connected to said valve member to actuate the opening of same relative to said pulsating pressure and in correspondence to actuation of engine throttle by said control means.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein said valve seat and valve body define an annular opening therebetween with said valve body being in a position whereby said open end is open.

9. The device of claim 7, wherein said valve closing means comprises resilient means which resiliently urges said valve body towards said valve seat.

10. The device of cla m 7, wherein said valve body is cone-shaped with the small end thereof extending into said housing open end and the large or base end of the cone extending outwardly of said housing open end, the outer periphery of the base end of said cone defining the outermost radial edge of said valve body and constituting a release edge for fuel flowing outwardly of said housing open end and along the outwardly flaring surface of said valve body.

11. A fuel injection device for internal combustion engines, comprising: an inlet conduit for conducting a combustible air and fuel mixture to a combustion chamber of an engine, a fuel injection nozzle comprising a hollow housing having an open end opening into said inlet conduit and providing a passage for fuel flow into said conduit, said open end comprising a rigid, stationary valve seat and a valve body which is linearly reciprocable away from and towards said seat colinearly with the direction of said fuel flow, and including a valve closing means which normally urges said valve body against said valve seat in a direction opposite to the direction of said fuel flow, a fuel pump for supplying fuel under pulsating pressure to said nozzle, said valve closing means being responsive to fluctuations in the pressure of fuel in said nozzle whereby said valve body alternately reciprocates away from and against said valve seat in response to said pressure fluctuations, said valve body thereby functioning as a mechanical hammer against said seat to atomize the liquid fuel stream passing outwardly of said nozzle open end, wherein said valve closing means comprises resilient means which resiliently urges said valve body towards said valve seat, including a throttle control means connected to said resilient means to actuate the force thereof in correspondence to actuation of the engine throttle by said control means.

(References on following page) References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Tygard 261-81 Sellers 26136.1 Loftin 26136,1 Stoll 123139.17 Allen 239102 X Goodman et a1. 239-102 X Allen 123 32 10 Roberts 137537 X Blifiert 137537 X 8 Korda 239-453 Rekettye'. Ohlsson 239453 Backman et a1. 239101 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain.

TIM R. MILES, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

